An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

A Ch­agua­nas farmer was killed yes­ter­day in an al­leged shootout with po­lice of­fi­cers dur­ing a spe­cial op­er­a­tion. The de­ceased was iden­ti­fied as Rol­ly “Aki” Brown.

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, of­fi­cers of the An­ti-Ex­tor­tion Unit were on op­er­a­tional du­ty around 4.30 am when they vis­it­ed Brown’s house along Soogrim Trace Road Re­serve, off En­deav­our Road, Ch­agua­nas.

Brown was re­port­ed­ly a prime sus­pect in an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to a re­port of con­spir­a­cy to com­mit mur­der.

Re­ports claim the of­fi­cers were in a marked po­lice ve­hi­cle and iden­ti­fied them­selves but were al­leged­ly fired up­on by Brown, who was said to be 66 years old.

It was al­leged that as he fired at of­fi­cers, they re­turned fire, hit­ting Brown. He was tak­en to the Ch­agua­nas Health Fa­cil­i­ty for emer­gency treat­ment, where he suc­cumbed to his in­juries a short while lat­er.

Of­fi­cers re­port­ed­ly re­cov­ered a home­made shot­gun at the scene.

How­ev­er, rel­a­tives dis­put­ed po­lice claims that Brown was a want­ed man.

A copy of a let­ter dat­ed March 7 from the Com­mis­sion­er of State Lands at the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture, Land and Fish­eries, ad­vised Brown that the agency had with­drawn an ear­li­er no­tice to de­liv­er up pos­ses­sion of the par­cel of land he was oc­cu­py­ing at Soogrim Trace Road Re­serve.